Welcome to the Painting Challenge. Here you will find the fabulous, fevered work from miniature painters from around the world. They are of every colour, gender, age and nationality, but all these people have at least two things in common: they love miniatures and they have all taken the Challenge.
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Friday, 29 January 2016

This is my interpretation for "risk takers": the three leaders of the North West Rebellion who took arms against the Canadian government in 1885. Holding the cross and the bible is Louis Riel, the spiritual leader. Wearing a "Hudson Bay" blanket is Chief Poundmaker, who made great efforts to improve the living conditions of his people. Finally, galloping on his horse, is Gabriel Dumont, a buffalo hunter well respected among the Metis. The figures are from RAFM.

I would have prefered the horse to be in a still pose and have Dumont confer with the two other leaders. Given that the horse is galloping, it would have been nonsensical to put them all in a vignette.

The house in the background was built by my dad 40 years ago. I fixed it and repainted it two months ago.

If Riel did not constantly hold back Dumont, the NW Rebellion would have been quite different. Dumont was an expert at guerilla warfare, while Riel was expecting a manifestation of God.

Sylvain, this is so awesome - a Curtgeld entry that speaks directly to our history and culture here in Canada and on the Prairies. As a Manitoban it is cool to see these figures, and to see some of our history shared with everyone here in the Challenge. These are very well done - the "Hudson Bay" blanket instantly stands out for me, but the brushwork on all three is excellent. Well done Sylvain, another 60 points for you. We await your submissions next week!

Five years ago, I bought some miniatures on kijiji (sounds suspiciously familiar). This time, it was a bunch of ships, mostly big battleships, from 1905 to 1945, from all warring nations, in 1:1200 and 1:2400 scales. I already painted the German, the French, as well as some British. Over the following few years, I bought for the Royal Navy some destroyers, cruisers and carriers. Finally, today, what I collected for the Brits is finally painted. It's not the whole Royal Navy, but it will do for a while :-).

Here are some of the units assembled and primed at the beginning of the Challenge. I was expecting a package from GHQ at that time which arrived later. By mistake, I've ordered six packs of C-class cruisers, not realizing that they come two per packs. Oh well, I guess 12 is better than 6. Some miniatures in the lot are from CinC. I definitely prefer GHQ for their sturdier guns and their crisper details, even if exaggerated, as they are easier to highlight.

Here are the units today. There are 5 submarines, 15 destroyers, 27 cruisers (light and heavy), 12 battleships and battlecruisers and 5 aircraft carriers. In addition, I built a core for the Royal Canadian Navy, comprising 5 ships (upper left of the picture, with the red tags). Two more will be added later for the "Nautical" Theme bonus. Most of the ships are depicted in camouflage pattern. However, as a rule, I would simplify the palette to 3 colors because, at this scale, a fourth color really makes no difference. Capital ships usually have unique designs. I kept my i-pad close to the painting station for quick reference.

Last time I submitted ships to the Challenge, destroyers and smaller were scored 2 points each while cruiser and bigger were given 3 points. So this whole batch is worth 182 points.

To give an idea of the size of a ship at 1:2400 scale, here is a close-up of the HMCS Saskatoon, a Flower class corvette.

And here is the same ship with my wedding ring for size comparison. I took these pictures with my i-pad instead of the "super" Canon camera and they turn out much better.

Another fun project completed. This new batch of ships should generate lots of interesting scenarios. I wanted to prepare a naval campaign for the invasion of Norway and now I have all the military units involved.

This is my last submission until February 28 (Nautical Theme), as I now have completed all but one of the projects I have prepared for this Challenge and as I will be going East to visit my family.

P.S. Sophie is not done her project yet, but we'll be working together on it next week.

Let me just say, Sylvain, that it's great to see you continue projects not related to sci-fi. Are there any other navies out there to paint? Maybe you should get started on them? Looking forward to your Nautical theme entry - will it be your 28mm Napoleonic Russians on a barge? :)

Great work on these little big ships Sylvain. Ten shades of grey? Oh man - I can't imagine. The detail and research demanded for these nautical collections is intimidating, and I have a healthy respect for folks like you (and your group in Regina) who can pull all the background together with the paint skills for excellent nautical games. The invasion of Norway will make for some great gaming I'm sure! Congratulations on finishing another large project.

Last year's scoring sounds right to me - this armada will net you another 182 points for your impressive total. Great job, and we look forward to more from you and from Sophie!

Hoi - Before you even start reading this post, scroll down a bit and put the YouTube movie to play for some more atmosphere ;-)

Let's get started! I have painted 5 miniatures depicting, for that's what they do let's be honest, characters from the EPIC and ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT (sorry just had to shout that) Vikings TV series. These are from several producers and none of them will remain in my collection... The Ragnar figure in the action pose will be my Curtgeld contribution and the other 4 will be a B-day present for my brother (whose name IS Norse but not Rollo :-P ).

The story behind the procurement of these figures is rather funny. I have been a fan of this series for quite some time and when preparing for Crisis I pre-ordered some of the very nice Stronghold Terrain metal figures. They are very good but in a bit passive poses so I also ordered a Brother Vini Ragnar whose pose is more dynamic, it's also on the Stronghold shop page above). My brother joins me for the Crisis each year even though he is not into figures or wargaming. As a matter of politeness I asked him, upon entering the Great Hall, whether he wanted me to keep an eye out for some miniatures for him and he went like: "Oh well if they have Vikings figures by chance I would like some of those." So I ended up buying a second set for his showcase as well and the ones here are to be his. The Lagertha figure is from The Dice Bag lady's shieldmaiden set.

Anyway here they are:

Ragnar:

Lagertha:

Floki:

Rollo:

As to the Curtgeld Ragnar, can you imagine anyone better for a gambler and risk-taker than Ragnar Lothbrok? His initial journey to Angleland could have ended disastrously and his further incursions into Wessex and France were no pick-nick either so yeah I think he counts. The brother Vinni figure is actually larger than the Stronghold figures and so I think it will be a bit too large to combine with my figures but just about perfect for Curt's showcase.

Well I do hope that both Curt and my Brother like these chaps, I sure do and am glad I have bought some for me as well. In the mean time Stronghold Terrain have released a Björn figure and Hasslefree has a Porunn figure on offer as well!

Great work Sander! I'm positive Curt will chime in below, but I know he is a huge fan of Vikings and I'm sure he will welcome Ragnar Lothbrok to his collection with great enthusiasm. Excellent brushwork on these figures - they look like wonderful sculpts, and it must be very cool to be painting figures connected to an awesome TV show! I'm not familiar with it, but somehow I'm thinking Floki is maybe not "the calm one"?So the four figures which are gifts for your brother (nice gift, by the way!) will get you 20 points, and the Curtgeld will get you another 20, so that's 40 points for these fearsome historic TV show fellows. Well done!

Quick entry this week with another Saxon Regiment, this time Regiment Rechten in their yellow faced uniforms. It seems only the second battalion took part in the 1813 campaign and as such I've only painted the one battalion. AB Miniatures once again and lovely pieces to paint.

Not being phased by my consumption of refreshments on Friday I managed to paint these guys mostly on Saturday with only a final highlight left for Sunday. Nice and fast and really improved my mood after those darn yanks. Basing did take a bit longer than expected as I ran out of flock and had to go restock. Couldn't find the same one I've been using so bought a few different model railroad flocks. This one has a few different colours and shades to simulate meadows, quite nice but maybe a tad bit too light. I'll have to try mixing in some darker tone as well.

With these done it's back to Flames of War again. I currently have the last 10 half-tracks on the project mostly done, but unfortunately probably won't have time to finish them for this week. After those it's only 4 M10 tank destroyers and I'm finally done with Olive Drab for a while.

Not much painting happening at the end of the week with my club hosting the biggest gaming tournament of the Winter season here in Finland and the second biggest of the whole year. 80 tables with games in multiple systems going on and I'll be playing as well trying to repeat my podium finish in Flames of War last year and gain an entry to the national team for the European Team Championships in Greece in August. So wish me luck!

As an end note your calls for Oldhammer have been heard! One random limited edition citadel mini is under works and I've dug up a few Rogue Trader era minis that have been waiting for paint quite a while. And to top it off I managed to prep a whole 4000 point Epic Armageddon army for painting. So quite a few minis on the painting desk. Maybe now there will always be something that I fancy painting and fewer days without touching the brushes.

Magnificent work Samuli - I have a healthy respect for folks who can pull off so much white, and make it look so nice! White can be a tiring colour to work with, but I'm sure you enjoyed the break from all of the Olive Drab (well, that, and the "refreshments":). Excellent to see more Saxons ready for action! Those AB miniatures are indeed fantastic sculpts, and your paint work does them justice.

Enjoy your gaming, and best of luck with your Flames of War efforts! And your painting list looks really cool! Oldhammer? Rogue Trade? Epic? Bring it on! We are looking forward to it. In the meantime, 36 more points for you!

Edit by Minion Tamsin - points adjusted as AB figures are being scored as 20mm

Continuing on with my 28mm Almoravid Impetus army with some light cavalry additions. They consist of two Berber units with javelins and one unit of Guzz with composite bows. Normally my Almoravids are a mix of manufactures, but these units are all Artizan which imho are some of the best in terms of Moor figures around.

I stayed with the low key earthy theme colours with just a bit of green as with the rest of the army. The shields are hand painted as I wanted to keep a certain look as with previous units I've done.

More Almoravids on the way next week hopefully if things stay on course and maybe something else if I can manage.

After a careful review of this submission, I can say, with confidence, "holy sh*t"! Christopher, that is some top notch brushwork. The colours are so smooth, muted and sombre on the one hand, but also clear and bright. Tremendous, tremendous work. Such beautiful cavalry, with splendid groundwork. And the detail work on the shields is fantastic too. I'm looking forward to seeing more of these figures - wow! So yes, this does get you 90 points to start, but I'm tossing in 10 points for the hand painted effort on the shields. I know the result is supposedly "low-key", but as I said, you somehow manage to keep the details subtle and have them jump out at the same time. Well done!

These troops were finished a couple of weeks ago, but the tufts to decorate the bases just arrived. This is about half of the troops needed for my Chain of Command USMC platoon for a Guadalcanal campaign. Most of the troops are from Warmodelling, but I supplemented the support teams with troops from the PSC US Heavy Weapons Box.

Squad 1: made up of a JL, a BAR and 7 riflemen.

Last year I put a lot of work in researching the WWII Pacific theatre (I knew absolutely nothing about this aside from reading Norman Mailer's Naked and the Dead many years ago as well as watching the The Pacific mini-series). My main goal was to put together a CoC Army List for the type D USMC organization. A Type E organization list already existed but this was quite different that what was used in the 1942-43.

Squad 2: ditto, in 1942 most men and officers carried the M1903, by the latter part of 1942, the M1 became available.

I game WWII in 1/72, and in metals there is not a whole lot of choice aside from Eureka and Warmodelling. There are a 2-3 other companies who make metal figures but they all looked like grunting chimpanzees to me. I had bought a couple of boxes of Waterloo 1812 plastic figures, and they were quite nice but I really am not keen to use soft plastic. Lovely slender sculpts though and they have figures for both the USMC and the Japanese. I can recommend them if you want plastics.

I had used Warmodelling for my Winter War Finns, they are nice sculpts but the casting was quite poor. I had been assured that when Battlemodels took over that the all casts were going to be re-done. Unfortunately they were not and the models suffer from the same problem with especially poor faces and a lot of flash that is almost impossible to remove.

M2, 50 cal HMG, one of the few guns with AP ability. The gun is from PSC as well as the most of the team.

Anyway, I went ahead and painted them up and they look OK. I am still missing rifle, BAR and raider squads and these are on the way from Eureka Miniatures. These are much nicer figures, my Japanese Platoon which is next up on the painting table is made up of both Eureka and Warmodelling, the Eureka Japanese are quite nice and I am sure that their USMC figures will be equal in quality.

M1917, 30 cal MMG, the USMC support teams had big crews.

Each group is described in the captions and I did enjoy putting together the force.

Bazooka Team

M1919, 30 cal LMG with a 3 man crew.

Flamethrower Team

Forward Observer

Five man 60 mm Mortar team.

For those who are interested here is the list I developed for CoC, it has got big Rich's stamp of approval. You can download a pdf here and read about it's development here.

Well, more US Marines for today! It's great to see the Pacific Theatre of WW2 drawing more attention and interest all the time, and I'm sure these fine figures will make for a great force in Chain of Command (an awesome set of rules). You've done some excellent work here John, between the camo and the groundwork, I can sense the heat, humidity and bugs of the Pacific...and considering the weather outside my house right now, you have no idea how nice that seems!I sympathize with your experience on the Warmodelling products - very, very unreliable quality and some abominable castings. It's disappointing the commitment to redo the molds has apparently not been followed up. But good to see there are other options out there, and you have made good use of the US figures from Plastic Soldier Company. Thank you also for sharing this info on the Pacific for Chain of Command, I'm sure there are many folks who will appreciate it.

These lads will net you 192 points. We are looking forward to seeing their Japanese opponents soon!

This Friday my submission was delayed by the flocking and basing phase - it was close to not appearing at all! But all is done (for now...) so here is the second half of my third squad of my WW2 marines (5 plastic figures from warlord games figures):

When I see the pics, I think I'll have to add more dots on the brown camo ( one day, perhaps).

I cannot resist to post a picture of all my very early Marine jungle troops ("Catachans" :), and now it's time to work on the support teams and armour.

And last but not least, the Corsican footmen for my Early Carthaginians. I had no idea of what they looked like, so I chose to paint them in a mix of Greek and Etruscan style (27 figures). I cut off the lead spears as usual and replaced them with small plastic brush bristles.

A few close-ups just for fun:

The bases are not close to each other because they were not fully dry when I took the photos.
Stay tuned! I'll be back next week...

Salut encore Gilles! Un autre présentation diversifiée et bien fait! Great work once again Gilles, as we are treated another wide assortment of periods in one post. Those Marines look the business, and as always, I love to see heavy cavalry. The mongols look excellent - I can seem them trampling their helpless foes right now. The Corsican footmen look great too, but I wouldn't know Greek from Etruscan - wouldn't know if they walked right up and tossed a spear at me! Those shields look great - are those hand painted?This gets you 127 points, but I'm throwing some extra in there for the fiddly work of converting spears. And if you hand painted those shields, I'll owe you more...à la semaine prochaine!